should i give the grateful dead a chance?

I'm still having trouble with that envelope-follower guitar sound and the more disco elements, 'Dancing...' is frightful

I only hate the envelope filter when it’s played by any guitarist other than Garcia or Townshend. Jerry uses it in such a way that it’s teetering on the edge of absurdity, and never quite falls over.

When I looked at the tracklist of Cornell before listening, I thought, “‘Dancing In The Street’? That can’t be good. No one’s managed even a middling cover of that.” While the Dead’s isn’t great, it’s far better than I’d expected, largely due to the disco feel/elements. The versions they did in the late ‘60s, though, are abominable.

You're probably aware if you're this far into GD, but you'll find a ton of psychedelic-sounding stuff, similar to pre-1970, in the big jam songs in 73-74 (Dark Star, Playing in the Band, and random long jams that pop up) even if most of is on the jazzier side, and you'll probably hear the Disco Dead sound in most of the stuff from 77-80, if you're trying to avoid the up-tempo, groovier bass stuff.

Thank you! I'm happy for any tips.

Not sure if anyone has ever posted it, but if you've ever found yourself bummed you couldn't download a GD SBD from archive.org and you use Chrome, the Grateful Grabber extension works really well.

“Everything stretched out... it expanded!”
DEAD FREAKS UNITE! 1971 was a momentous year for the GRATEFUL DEAD – involving landmark shows, bizarre ESP experiments, French Acid Tests, hypnosis, new faces and emotional farewells. BOB WEIR, BILL KREUTZMANN and other eyewitnesses share tales from this journey with Rob Hughes: “We were just coming alive.”
Our friends across the pond at Uncut hop in the way-back machine with Bobby, Billy, and more to explore early 70s Dead. READ THE EXCERPT https://www.dead.net/features/general-news-news/uncut-magazine-grateful-dead-road-trips-sneak-preview?eml=2021June17/5370880/6131962&etsubid=33554028
Also, The Jolly Ol' Grateful Deadcast, Over There---The Grateful Dead In England, and much more (incl. Hunter playlist)linked in this Bulletin: http://view.email.dead.net/?qs=6756b1b9c0987b5ea85777a074278ac13bbc2b46dc012850853f1c1589450246b97ba534a1b481ed388bfe654bc25728c25852b0fd355d907d342c0022d49a25298f5632dd0846c61b1a1c3c515880cf

For my birthday – a not-insignificant milestone – my mom & sister sent me a Ripple Junction Grateful Dead Adult Unisex Steal Your Face Vintage Light Weight 100% Cotton Crew T-Shirt Xl White.

(Something "Touch of Grey"–related may have been more appropriate, but I'll take it)

Got to say Billy Strings sounds pretty good with Billy & the Kids.

Seriously. I’d see them over Dead and Co

Who knew that my gateway to bluegrass would be found in my search for post-Dead jam bands who didn't leave me cold. I've much love for the extended explorations of Greensky Bluegrass and Yonder Mountain but yeah, Billy Strings has recently become my first choice for this kinda music.

Got to say Billy Strings sounds pretty good with Billy & the Kids.

Thanks for the tip! I'm digging these Youtube clips of the Red Rocks shows from earlier this week.

Yeah, I'd love to see Billy Strings playing with Billy & the Kids in person someday. I'm surprised by how rapidly that kid took off, he's immensely talented but it always seems like the real bluegrass players are held at an arm's length, even within the jam band scene. They get love, but never quite breakthrough to the next level.

Speaking of meteoric rises and post-Dead jam bands, I've started checking out some Goose after the last few years of insane hype by phans and heads on Twitter. I'm not sold yet and they too often sound like a mish-mash of other jam bands (not to mention the guitarist's tone is way to close to Trey's at times), but I have been struck by a few of their jams - there was a great jam that started with Radiohead's "Weird Fishes" before segueing into their own "Wysteria Lane" (from 6/11/21) that worked for me.

Everyone in that Billy & the Kids lineup seems pretty talented.

This came out today:

https://store.bluenote.com/products/dave-mcmurray-grateful-deadication

Looks cool!!

I agree that the bluegrass background seems to really help him get the jerry feel right (with his own spin on it of course). A lot of guys do the jam band thing with a kind of exaggerated whiteboy funk swing, whereas there's something a little more understated about bluegrass phrasing, more flat and fluid (if those adjectives make any sense together).

xpost - digging it so far!

i guess he's played with weir?

i think a lot of the tendencies i hate about modern jam bands have their origins in the allmans over the dead

I thought I had heard everything but I just came across the single version of dark star on the long strange trip compilation. So good. Sitar and is that banjo at the very end?

Jerry's Before The Dead is a very good folk-to-bluegrass 4-disc set (Amazon's got the CDs for $35.16, MP3 $31.96, ltd. ed. vinyl $299.49). He seems like a low-key folkie at first, but quickly takes off. I posted about it over on Jerry Garcia Solo/JGB/Grisman/etc. - S/D Sure would like to hear his pre-Dead performances w Grisman.

I thought I had heard everything but I just came across the single version of dark star on the long strange trip compilation. So good. Sitar and is that banjo at the very end?

I think Paul Williams listed that as one of his 100 Greatest Rock Singles of All-Time.

I'm still not a huge Dead fan, but what helped me kind of like them was the Amazon documentary, which I was able to see at a limited screening in NYC. The director was there and he was definitely a very knowledgeable Deadhead, addressing every esoteric question every fan had. (The biggest and not-so-esoteric one was "Where's Mountain Girl?" and he said they REALLY tried, but she said she was saving everything for a book or film of her own that she was already doing and refused to participate.) I don't doubt there's lots of holes in it - it's tough to cram a whole band's long history into four hours - but it was surprisingly engaging from start-to-finish and the music came off really well. I now have Live/Dead, the two classic country-rock LP's, the famous Ithaca bootleg from 1977 and the Dick's Picks volumes Greg Kot recommended (I think in the 2004 edition of the Rolling Stone Album Guide) and enjoy them quite a bit.

Good stash. Also in the country-folk vein, Reckoning is a soulful acoustic set-down set (2 CDs for price of one, as Ah recall).

I had reckoning as a young lad and was always annoyed with the production. Something about acoustic guitars in a live setting, they never sound good …

“Searchlight casting for faults in the clouds of delusion” 😊

Something about acoustic guitars in a live setting, they never sound good …

The acoustic guitars on some late '60s/early '70s Dead shows sound ok, probably because they're externally miked rather than having a pickup. Once acoustics got fancy internal pickups in the late '70s/early '80, they were much easier to manage from an EQ/feedback standpoint when going through a PA, but almost always sounded tinny.

On the Europe 72 version of “jack straw” at the beginning, Bobbys vocal is on the right, and there’s a high harmony on the left. Who is this? I thought Phil’s voice was deeper and jerry’s vocals doesn’t come til later. Maybe a Bobby overdub In the studio?

Should I give Brent Mydland a chance?

“tons of steel” is a jam.

https://i.imgur.com/Wat1Xxf.png

L-R: Aykroyd, Ramis, Murray

Photo is actually a still of when they encounter the old lady ghost in the nypl stacks

xxxxxxpost birdistheword, also check out Weir's accurately-titled Ace--as Deadhead Xgau opined way back then:
Ace [Warner Bros., 1972]
Weir can be preachy and screechy, but Robert Hunter's homiletics ("Playing in the Band") make up for John Barlow's post-hippie know-nothingisms ("Walk in the Sunshine"), and "One More Saturday Night" isn't any less a rockabilly epiphany because it strains Bobby's vocal chords--that just adds a note of authenticity. With Barlow redeeming himself on the elegiac pre-hippie fable "Cassidy" and Keith Godchaux sounding like a cross between Chick Corea and Little Richard, this is the third in a series that began with Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. A-

Ace is a wonderful, wonderful album.

Won't let me paste anything, but it's from 1990, so may be just as well---press release for Dave's Picks Vol. 40, w links to Listening Party etc.:
http://view.email.dead.net/?qs=6ceb8ca8d65dd0c108e4a444be120b4ed9eef6a4717bb0a7736434639088d68c0f11bde2d65fe50dc711383bec9f2a326316c7f0d7536017d3d7cb675128e047e7cee5b73a713fc726e930426d0b9ca8

How’s the Phil Lesh and Friends show these days? Have the chance for great seats from a friend but not cheap.

I think it really depends which lineup you get, he's been bouncing around between different backing bands on different week/ends for this run. This weekend it's mostly the Dawes guys backing him up, which I'm not exactly excited about tbh. But I guess MC Taylor from Hiss Golden Messenger is playing with him Friday and Saturday nights, which could be cool.

Yeah I was considering the Saturday show, it's for my birthday (after other plans got canceled) but still not sure I want to drop $220/seat on it.

Concerts are so fucking expensive now aren't they. I spent like $125/pop for Bela Fleck tickets at carnegie hall, but prime seats.

My own take on this issue.... https://vassifer.blogs.com/alexinnyc/2020/01/exhuming-the-buried-or-how-i-learned-to-lighten-up-appreciate-the-grateful-dead.html

xpost - yeah, my Dead & Co. tickets ended up being not much less than $200 by the time all the $46(!!!) worth of fees got added in.

I just can't do it. I can't drop that kind of cash on a concert I'm not even sure I'd be that into. I could justify maybe $50. Even for something I'm sure I want to see $220 is a lot.

I'm trying to think of the most I've paid for tickets, or who I would do that for. (There's probably a thread for this.) I don't see a lot of big name shows. I think I paid $60 for Bryan Ferry. Sparks are coming next year and I haven't pulled the trigger yet, but I think balcony tix for that are about the same. $220 for the guy who wasn't really even a vocalist in the Dead plus some ringers is outrageous imo.

It was for arguably the "best" seats, but I'd be paying $135 even for GA floor tickets.

I also generally speaking don't go to big production/big name shows. I don't see a lot of shows period, but when I do I usually like smaller venues and non-major artists better as an experience.

Oh, ZZ Top was the last show I saw pre-Covid. Nosebleed seats, but $40.

$220 for the guy who wasn't really even a vocalist in the Dead plus some ringers is outrageous imo.

Yeah, I didn't even pay this much for three actual Dead guys and ringers when I saw them, though not appreciably lower by most standards. I could justify it this time after not having spent a penny on shows between March 2020 and September of 2021 though.

imagine paying $200 to hear John Mayer noodle on his guitar at a 'dead' show

imagine swinging into a thread to inaccurately describe something to feel like a cool guy on the internet.

Tried with the Dead again this morning while doing laundry; listened to about a third of the Fillmore West 1969 3CD set before giving up and switching to the Allman Brothers' At Fillmore East, which it turned out was what I wanted all along.

Depending on which third that was, I get it. The first disc is meh, the magic really shines on the second two discs, imo. But I'm not sure it'd still be in your wheelhouse.